FOOTBALL (Soccer) IN THE ALGARVE 2018/2019

These notes are to help those who would like to
watch a live game while visiting the Algarve. I have been to many
of the grounds myself.

Page updated 13th March 2019

Background to the setup in Portuguese football

This is the Portuguese football set-up in
descending order for season 2018 - 2019. National Leagues consist
of three tiers. The fourth and, where they exist, fifth tiers are
the regional leagues. Promotion and relegation operates between
all tiers.

Liga NOS - Benfica, Porto, Sporting etc;

Lige Ledman Pro - Segunda Liga

Campeonato Prio (Naçional Seniores) -
Regional divisions

Regional and District Leagues -
semi-professional

This English language website http://www.portugoal.net/
covers the top level and national team. Some information seems not
be updated regularly, so treat with caution. There are these
English language 'blog' type websites which predictably
concentrate on the top division, but make an interesting read for
those wishing to keep in touch -

Another good website, with areas in English and
several other languages, is www.zerozero.pt which, among a lot of
information has results, league tables and fixtures for all levels
of the game in Portugal.

There is only one website specifically for
Algarve football, the official Algarve FA website www.afalgarve.pt in
Portuguese only but easy enough to navigate and make sense of.

In Portugal, there is little or no recreational
or 'park' football as we know it in the UK. Most organised
football is played on enclosed grounds with 'proper' referees and
linesmen.

There are also national and regional set-ups for
U-19 etc type football. There are some unofficial veterans
leagues.

You will be pleased to hear that admission
charges are a lot less than in the UK for the comparable level of
football. Tickets are readily available apart from, for example,
Benfica v Sporting or Benfica v Porto. In most top level grounds
and all those below that level you can pay on the day.

No league games are scheduled over the weekend
between the Christmas and New Year Holidays, or over the two
weekends at all if those holidays fall on a Friday, Saturday or
Sunday. At Easter there are no matches on Easter Sunday, they are
mostly played on the Saturday instead.

Football tours to the Algarve

Would you like a football tour to the
Algarve? Algarve Football Tours can organise games at any level,
from full professional down to veterans and school-aged teams.

The company deals with top level and
semi-professional teams from Germany, Sweden, Norway etc during
their winter break and also arranges pre-season training matches
for top British and other clubs. Matches can be arranged against
suitable local opposition and also on a tournament basis between
visiting teams. Qualified referees are arranged for all matches
and those at higher level will be provided with appropriate people
from the Portuguese or Algarve Football Association lists.

Semi - professional clubs can also have suitable
matches arranged pre-season against local opposition. All matches
at such levels require official sanctions from the relevant
Football Associations.

For those at the lower levels of the game, we
can organise end of season and pre- season tour games against
local teams of ex-pats, short end-of-season tournaments between
visiting teams, also trips for school age teams during the winter
and Easter holidays. Intending school aged teams should be
aware that most weekday matches would be played in the evenings on
3G pitches under floodlights. We ensure that age appropriate match
arrangements are in place.

It is not easy to organise anything in July and
August as it is too hot. The local football season, apart from the
top two divisions, ends in mid-May and resumes in late
September. Veteran's and school aged games are normally good
until the end of June.

For smaller groups, we have access to 3G pitches
with floodlights (and a bar adjacent!) for five a side and
seven a side matches, often in a short tournament format.

The Algarve is regularly visited not only by
teams from the UK but from Ireland, Holland, Belgium, Sweden,
Norway, Iceland and the USA. A chance to meet different
opposition!

Algarve Football Tours will make all the
arrangements necessary to make your trip a successful event -
except booking flights and the essential insurance! Hotels,
transport to and from matches, training venues (if required) and
other off the field and non football activities can be organised

Click the logo below to visit our website for
more information, testimonials and contact details.

Women's Football Tours to
Portugal

As Women’s football gathers momentum and
popularity, we are delighted to offer Portugal as a great
destination for Women’s Football Tours offering bespoke packages
including matches or tournaments. Throughout Portugal we have
women's/girls teams providing ideal opposition for all levels,
amateur to Semi Professional. Selected hotels offer full training
facilities for the more serious, or we can create a tailor made
package based in a lively resort to make a perfect football
holiday.

We can create a tailor made package for your women’s and girl's
football teams with hotels/accommodation to suit your
requirements, training facilities and those all important matches
or tournaments. In the Algarve, Lisbon or Porto we have
great conditions, venues and opposition choices to be sure your
team has a great football experience in Portugal.

If your prefer your tour to be a more sociable event, you can be
based in one of the Algarve’s lively resorts, to enjoy beautiful
beaches, good restaurants and nightlife based around your
football.

Women's Futsal tours with
matches and tournaments can also be arranged.

Futsal in Europe has a long history in the sport and Portugal is
host some of the best players and teams. Take the chance to test
your skills on the European stage. Our package of accommodation,
training facilities and matches all set in a lively resort means
you and your team can enjoy a great tour in the Algarve.

WALKING FOOTBALL

Strictly for the over 50's, we are now able to help you with
visits and competitions for walking football teams. There are a
growing number of active walking football teams in the Algarve.
Contact us if you would like a one-off game or perhaps we can
organise a small tournament. A tournament will take place in
Ferreiras on 1st and 2nd April 2019. This is however fully
subscribed, with 30 teams from all over Europe taking part.

Liga NOS (Superliga) - eighteen teams

Season 2018 -
2019.

Portimonense
(the team based in Portimão) finished a creditable 10th in
Portugal's top league last season.

A bit
about their ground -

They play in Portimão's city centre municipal
stadium, a short walk from buses and trains. It is an 'old
fashioned' ground in that there are steep terraces close to the
pitch and no running track etc around it. To be honest it would
barely pass muster in the UK National League (5th tier) let alone
the top division of a national competition. Spectator facilities
are minimal, there are few toilets, one portable bar on the
non-members side, no match day programmes etc.

Their website is www.portimonense.pt.
The stadium holds about 5,500. If it's looking like rain, be aware
that the entire stadium, apart from the executive area, has no
roof cover. Average attendances this season are around the 3,000
mark ie stadium about half full, or half empty depending on now
you look at it.

Note for visitors - children under 6 years old
are not allowed in. The price of tickets for this season seems to
be €15 in non-members areas, but is increased for the big games.
They have been selling tickets on line via the official website,
but not for every match. Except for the big games, ticket office
opens 2 hours before kick-off. There are cafés and bars in the
surrounding area in which to wait, there is NOTHING inside the
ground in the way of spectator amenities before the game starts.

There is a fairly large free car park outside, which does get full
as it also serves two large apartment blocks. There are other places
to park nearby. For those coming by bus, the ground is 4 minutes
walk from the main bus stop area on Avenida Guanaré. The railway
station is about 15 minutes walk. However, given TV schedules, many
games are played at times not allowing journeys by train or bus.

The Lisbon based teams of Benfica, Sporting and Belenenses are
about 3 to 4 hours drive from the Algarve or between 4 and 5 hours
by bus or train. That includes the time spent in the city getting
to the ground. It is impossible to travel to and from their games
by train unless staying overnight. If going by coach (bus to non
UK readers) you will have a long wait (until 0100) before
your return journey! ALL top flight matches are shown live
on TV and are therefore mostly played in the evenings, sometimes
kicking off as late as 9.15pm even on Sundays.

Games are scheduled for television purposes and
are played over Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday evenings. Very
rarely does a team play at 4pm on a Sunday afternoon, the
'default' time for kickoffs.

Dates and times of matches are confirmed four to
six weeks in advance, except at the end of the season when certain
games are ordered to be played at the same time, sometimes at less
than a week's notice! Fixture dates and times can be found on the
official Superliga
website which also has links to the club websites.

There is virtually no midweek football (ie
Tuesday or Wednesday) anywhere in Portugal below the top two
Divisions.

Apart from games involving the 'big three' and
the honourable exceptions of Braga and Guimarães, crowds often
number less than 5,000.

Segunda Liga - Ledman Liga Pro

Farense, the team of Faro and the only Algarve
team in this Division, play in the renovated city centre São Luis
stadium, which has a capacity of about 10,000. The stadium is
about 15 minutes walk from the railway and bus stations on hte
north side of the city near the large hospital. There is no cover
from the elements on the non-members side of the stadium.
Attendances are around 1,500 for most games, so there is never any
trouble getting in.

Portuguese FA Cup/ League Cup

The Portuguese FA Cup is open to all
teams in the National setup, including those in Madeira and the
Azores. Almost all games are played at the weekend, as the leagues
mostly consist of between 12 and 16 teams, thus creating plenty of
spare dates. The only regional teams allowed to enter are,
generally, the league runner's up and the regional cup
winners. The fixtures can be found at www.zerozero.pt
but kickoff times are harder to find and will have to be checked
locally.

All Algarve teams are now out of the FA Cup.

The League Cup (Taça CTT) is played by
the Superliga and Segunda Liga teams only. Both Algarve teams were
eliminated at an early stage.

Campenonato de Portugal - Campeonato Prio

This season, after yet another change in
format, the third tier is split into five regional sections
each of sixteen teams. The Algarve was included in section E. The
five league winners, plus the three best runners-up will go into a
post season knockout series to determine which two teams are
promoted to the Segunda Liga.

These Algarve teams are the League this
season : Olhanense (Olhão), Ferreiras, Louletano
(Loulé), Lusitano VRSA (Vila Real de Santo António) and
Armacanenses (based in Armação de Pêra).

Various websites and newspapers publish the
fixture list, but rarely are kickoff times included. Up to date
League tables plus last and next games can be seen here in English - external link.

Games are usually played on Sunday afternoons at
3pm (4pm in April and 5pm in May and early September), but check
kickoff times locally as they may vary. Changes have this
season been made with as little as 48 hours warning! There are no
midweek matches unless there is a postponement to be rescheduled.

Admission is normally 7 Euros. Attendances for
the Algarve teams are around 150, 200 at the most.

Louletano
mostly play in the town centre stadium, but are playing some games
in the 28.000 seat Algarve Stadium. That easily accommodates their
average crowd of 120.

Olhanense play at the Estadio José
Arcanjo in Olhão. This is near the centre of town, not far from
the main N125 road and McDonald's. The tall floodlights can be
seen from a long distance. There is little cover from the elements
on one side, none at all on the other. There is a car park outside
and street parking a few minutes walk away. They do have a
small number of resident British fans who meet before the game in
a bar opposite the main entrance.

The Algarve League

This is a semi-professional league, roughly the
equivalent of a good English county FA league. Matches
are normally played on Saturday afternoons, although some games
are moved because of ground sharing.

FirstDivision -
season runs late September to mid May

The First Division now consists of 11 teams and
the programme is split into two phases. After a first round of
matches ending on 23rd February, the top six play another round of
matches between them to determine champions and promotion. The
bottom five will play each other twice again to avoid relegation.

Admission to matches is €2,50, attendances
rarely exceed 100!

The teams for this season following relegations and promotions :

11 Esperanças (play in Faro)
Almancilense
Esperança Lagos
Guia FC
Imortal Albufeira
Lagoa
Lusitano VRSA - play in Vila Real de Santo António
Messinense - - play in São Bartolomeu de Messines
Moncarpachense - play in Moncarapacho
Quarteira SC - play in Quarteira Municipal Stadium, shared with
Quarteirense.
Silves
Quarteirense - have been kicked out of the League!
Apparently they were in debt to the local council on stadium
rental and were locked out. No sympathy here!

Algarve League games are normally played on
SATURDAYS normally at 3pm (4pm In April, 5pm May) but as before
fixtures can change, often at short notice. Best check locally if
you can. Some kickoff times are changed because of ground sharing.

The local FA website usually publishes changes
to the fixture lists with confirmed kickoff times on the TUESDAY
prior to the weekend concerned. The local press does not list
kickoff times in their information.

A problem is that kickoff times and even match
dates are altered with as little as a week's warning. It is
difficult therefore to keep up to date as none of the clubs has an
official website and the FA website does not highlight any
changes. So if I forget to look...

Fixtures (with kickoff times) can be seen
at http://www.afalgarve.pt/index.php?Itemid=355
then click 'Jogos a realizar' for the date you need. Fixtures and
current league table can also be seen here.
Reminder that ko times for more than 2 or 3 weeks ahead are
subject to change.

Imortal
(Albufeira) play in the Municipal Stadium just outside
the town centre. Location Map here.
For Imortal's results and fixtures click here. Most other grounds are pretty well in
the centre of the town or village and are not hard to find.

The Quarteira SC stadium is a bleak all-purpose municipal facility
on the border between Vilamoura and Quarteira. It's only 6 or 7
minutes walk from the McDonalds in Vilamoura. The buses from and
back to Albufeira call at a stop about 5 minutes walk away. Map here.

Second Division started 29th September, ends
11th May.

The Second Division this season now has fifteen teams, three having
dropped out before the season even began and one more since. Results,
fixtures
and league table here.

Because of ground sharing, many matches in this Division are played
at 6pm /1800hrs on Saturdays. Most of these grounds have all weather
synthetic grass.

English/Scottish football on TV

Many bars in the Algarve, especially those run
by British people, have UK satellite dishes or internet streams.
In the Algarve you will almost always be able to find somewhere
showing the football. Some bars will also show Scottish games, but
you may have to look rather harder!

If you are coming to the Albufeira area and need
to know a good bar in which to watch a game near where you are
staying, go to www.albufeira.com/forum and ask there for a
recommendation.

With the demise of the satellite signal that
allowed most UK channels to be easily received here, it is no
longer simple for some bars to show matches screened on BT Sport,
BBC, ITV etc. Most now have devised various internet based
solutions of varying quality and quantity. Sky Sports channels are
still available through satellite, but we understand they will
soon also go.

Portugal's Sport TV channels show English
Premier League matches each weekend and during midweek,
including the 3pm Saturday matches not available to UK viewers.
English language commentary is not currently available. SportTV also show FA Cup and League
Cup matches.

Many bars in tourist areas (ie the Algarve) have
access to various satellite channels, notably Bein Sport also US
and Canadian channels, which show many English Premier League
games with English commentary, also some have Eir Sports (Irish)
channels. You can find bars showing three games at the same time
on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon.

Portugal's SportTV also shows live US Major
League, Dutch, Italian, French, German and Spanish games fairly
regularly. You may also get Brazilian games late at night.

Spanish Football?

If you have a car while you are here, you might
be able to get over to Huelva or Seville. Seville play in the
Spanish First Division (La Liga) of course as do the other team in
Seville, Real Betis.

The local team just across the border in Huelva,
called Recreativo, are in the third division.

You can get fixtures from an English Language
website at www.soccer-spain.com;
which also has information about kickoff times and ticket sales
generally. Beware that in Spain, many games are scheduled for TV
purposes only a few days in advance of the weekend
concerned. Tickets are therefore not normally available
until a few days beforehand. Some games kick off as late as
10.15pm.

The city of Seville is easily accessible from
the Algarve by car, but there are no trains and by bus it is very
hard work! Click here for
public transport information Algarve - Seville

Women's Football

Very little women's 11-a-side football in played in Portugal. The
whole Algarve Region has just one active team, that of Guia FC.
They play in the regionalised second tier of the national setup
and are in the top three of their group. Last season they
just missed out on the promotion playoffs, losing their final two
games. Games are normally played on Sunday afternoons, however
they do not necessarily play every week.